Willard f



' (No Model.)

w. P. RICHARDS, GAR COUPLING.

No. 574,575; Patented Jan. 5, 1897.

wzmzsszs: Q mvsnion ATTORNEYS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

VILLARD F. RICHARDS, OF BUFFALO, NEYV YORK,- ASSIGNOR TO THE GOULDCOUPLER COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CAR-COUPLING.

SPECIFICATIONforming part of Letters Patent No. 574,575, dated January5, 1897. Application filed June 16, 1896. Serial NO- 595,720. (N0model-l To (all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLARD F. RICHARDS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Oar-Couplings, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to that class of twinjaw car-couplings whichcomprise a horizontally-swinging knuckle or coupling-jaw, a lock forretaining the knuckle in its closed or coupled position, and an ejectingspring, whereby the knuckle is automatically thrown into its openposition when unlocked. Among other knuckle-opening springs a springhaving two straight arms or branches, one bearing against the draw-headand the other against the locking-arm of the knuckle, has been employed.Such a spring, in order to possess the necessary stiffness to fully openthe knuckle, must be comparatively heavy, and when so made the same isliable to become set, while its great resistance renders it difficult toclose the knuckle by hand.

The object of my invention is to provide an opening-spring of thischaracter which,while being sufficiently powerful to freely open theknuckle, has the requisite resilience or lightness to avoid its becomingset and to permit the knuckle to be closed without difliculty.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a horizontal section of acar-couplin g provided with my improved knuckle-opener, showing theknuckle open. Fig. ,2 is a similar view showing the knuckle closed. Fig.3 is a detached rear view of the knuckle, showing the recess thereof andthe opening-spring seated therein.

Like letters of reference refer to like parts in the several figures.

A is the draw-head, which may be of the ordinary construction, B theknuckle or coupling-jaw, pivoted to the draw-head by the usual verticalpin 1), and O the lock, which may be of any common construction.

D is the knuckle-opening spring arranged within the draw-head betweenthe tail or looking-arm b of the knuckle and the opposing inner wall ofthe draw-head. This spring comprises two arms or branches (2 d and ispreferably formed of a single strip of spring metal, which is looselybent or dou bled around the front side of the knuckle-pivot b. Theknuckle is provided in its rear side with a central recess E, in whichthe doubled portion and the inner branch cl of the spring is seated. Theouter branch d is substantially straight and bears at its free endagainst the adjacent wall of the draw-head, while the inner branch cZbears at its end against the rear side of the locking-arm of the knuckleand is provided between its free end and the bend d of the spring withan outward bulge d which faces the inner side of the outer branch andforms a secondary or auxiliary spring of substantially semiellipticalform.

In the open position of the knuckle both branches of the spring arerelaxed, as shown in Fig. 1. When the knuckle is closed by contact withan opposing coupling or by hand, the outer branch bears against theinner wall of the draw-head and the inner bulged branch cl of the springapproaches the outer branch, thus straining or deflecting the latter.During the final portion of this closing movement and before the knuckleis fully closed the bulge or auxiliaryspring (1 comes in contact withthe straight branch, as shown in Fig. 2, causing the auxiliary spring tobe strained or partly flattened and correspondingly increasing theaggregate resistance of the spring, and as soon as the resistance of thebulge or auxiliary spring exceeds the resistance of the straight branchthe extent of flexion of said straight branch is reduced to the distancebetween the free end of the spring and the crown of the auxiliaryspring,thus still further tensioning the same and adding this increasedresistance to that of the strained auxiliary spring and rendering theentire spring practically equivalent to a heavier spring having no suchbulge. By this construction the outer straight branch acts as a lightprimary spring and the inner branch as a secondary spring which comesinto action after the primary spring has been strained.

Upon releasing or unlocking the knuckle the strained branches of thespring react and swing the knuckle into its open position, as

shown in Fig. 1. As both members of the spring are under tension in theclosed position of the knuckle the initial force of the spring iscomparatively great and promptly overcomes the inertia of the knuckle,and although the power of the spring decreases to the force of itsstraight branch alone during the remaining movement of the knuckle thisreduced force is suflicient to continue the opening movement andcompletely and reliably open the knuckle. This construction permits theuse of a much lighter and correspondingly resilient spring than could beemployed if both arms of the spring were straight, as heretoforeconstructed, thus rendering the spring less liable to become set. Thisconstruction also enables the knuckle to be closed more easily than bythe use of such a heavy spring, because during the first portion of theclosing movement of the knuckle only the comparatively small resistanceof the straight outer branch is encountered, and during the last portionof such closing movement the momentum of the knuckle materially aids inovercoming the increased resistance offered by the bulge or auxiliaryspring. My improved spring thus combines the resilience of a lightspring with the power of a heavy spring and at the same time avoids thedisadvantages of a twoarmed heavy spring having no such bulge orauxiliary spring.

By doubling the spring loosely around the knuckle-pivot, as shown, thesame is free to slide bodily around the pivot to alimited extent, andthe entire spring is allowed to yield more or less when its straightbranch is strained, thus increasing the elasticity of the spring.

I claim my invention 1. The combination with the draw-head,the knuckleor coupling-jaw and a lock, of a knuckle-opening device interposedbetween the draw-head and the back of the knuckle and comprising a lightprimary spring beariug against one of said parts and a secondaryauxiliary spring acting upon the other part and arranged to come intoaction after the primary spring has been strained, substantially as setforth.

2. The combination with the draw-head,the knuckle or coupling-jaw and alock, of a knuckle-opening spring consisting of a branch bearing againstthe draw-head and a branch bearing against the knuckle and having abulge or auxiliary spring, substantially as set forth.

The combination with the draw-head,thc knuckle or coupling-jaw and alock, of. a knuckle-opening spring consisting of an elastic stripextending around the knuckle-pivot and having an outer branch hearing atits free end against the draw-head and an inner branch hearing at itsfree end against the knuckle and provided with an outward bulge formingan auxiliary spring which is adapted to bear against said outer branch,substantially as set forth.

\Vitness my hand this 29th day of May, 1896.

XVILLARD F. RICHARDS.

Vitnesses:

.TNo. J. BONNER, KATHRYN ELnoRE.

